Horror not just a fantasy

Sunday

Sep 23, 2012 at 12:01 AM

Look out, sister. The apocalypse is nigh.

Look out, sister. The apocalypse is nigh.

Alleged real-life flesh eater Richard Cimino Jr. of Doylestown is out of jail. Authorities released him from the Wayne County Correctional Facility earlier this week after he made $100,000 bail. Police arrested Cimino Sept. 14 in Hawley, saying he tore off his clothes, broke into a house, jumped from a window and injured himself, then, bloody and screaming, attacked a woman who was walking nearby, gnawing her skull — all as the sun rose early that morning. Officials are trying to determine whether Cimino, 20, was under the effects of bath salts, the street name for drugs that often contain synthetic cathinones and have effects similar to amphetamine and cocaine.

Cimino's not the first accused zombie. On the sunny afternoon of May 26 in Miami, police had to shoot to death a naked, growling, chomping Rudy Eugene to stop him from killing a homeless man. Eugene's horrific attack left his victim with his eyes, nose and mouth chewed off. Eugene had used marijuana, but a post-mortem analysis found no traces of bath salts in his system. His grisly behavior remains a mystery.

Zombie and vampire books, movies and television shows have enjoyed an unprecedented popularity over the past decade or so. Coming up right here in Stroudsburg on Halloween weekend is a "Zombie Walk" down Main Street to the Sherman Theater, which will screen the premiere of "Holiday of the Dead."

But who knew that fantasy made glamorous would become gorily real? In the Cimino case, a man accused of an incomprehensibly violent and vicious attack is now free on bail. Cimino will have to show up for a Sept. 26 preliminary hearing to get the $100,000 back.

Maybe someone will make another cult classic, a sequel to the 1968 film "Night of the Living Dead," based on current news.

They can call it "Day of the Living Dead — the Naked Truth."

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